30/4/19 - Dwellingup to somewhere past Collie

160km today.

First stop was the public loos at Dwellingup.  The find of the day was that there was a shower in each of the toilet blocks – one for the girls and one for the boys, so we took turns having a free 5 minute shower (40 degrees) and were very happy with that.

Oh joy!! A shower!!! Yes please.  

Just a little further down  the road we discovered the dubious pleasure of combined corrugations and pea gravel surface together – just a bit skatey around the bends.  Lucky we were in no rush. We also passed under a couple of these tunnels (conveyor belts on top for the mines) 

Morning tea was under the powerlines as that was where the track took us – huge pylons carrying 330,000 volts in a broad cleared area.  Ross picked out an owlet nightjar sitting up in a tree hollow about 30m off off the ground and I even managed to snap a photo of him. He looked like a furry animal peering down at us.

a pretty section of track

We stopped at Hoffmans mill campsite to check it out – really lovely old mill site with large cleared campsites – only open between October and Easter. ($8/adult).

playing poohsticks?

We stopped on a bush track off of the road for lunch. Just stuck our nose in and decided there was room to get through into a wider area.

...and just a little later on found a sign at checkpoint MC48 pointing to a picnic area!!!One of the troubles with this plan is that  the track notes don’t say much except turn right , turn left, go straight on, so you don’t know what you are missing or what might be a great site coming up.  It would also be really interesting to know some more about the vegetation and the history of the areas that we are travelling through too. It would also be great to be able to calculate in driving time (if we knew how many km) and time for walks etc if they were in the day. 

We stopped at Collie to shop and stocked up on what was needed before heading onwards.

We continued on to our planned stop (map on the phone, track notes on the old ipad) . The plan was to stay by the side of a dam, and to be there by about 4pm, but unfortunately as we drew near it was clear that some controlled burning was going on.  The road to the campsite itself was closed off completely and the smoke was thick, so, with no other plan in mind, we made the best of it and  we headed onwards out of the smoky area and checked out a few bush tracks in various locations off of our route, before eventually finding one with some flat areas out of the smoky part and away from the road a bit.  We have our own private bit of heaven for the night.

I hope that the wombat who owns the hole next to our vehicle doesn’t decide to nibble on our toes in the night. Once again the foxwing is out (sides attached to different places this time) and providing shelter. 

29th April 2019 - Dryandra to somehwere near Dwellingup on "The Track"

 198KM 

We made our first stop the arboretum, which was back towards the Dryandra village.  This was last worked on in the 1970s and it was a bit hard to make out what we were supposed to find..













Occasionally we located a wooden post with a species name on it ,but it was still unclear which of the trees nearby might be the ones named…

The plus was that we got to see lots of lovely trees and some blossom







and also the birds were enjoying the area,

which meant that Ross had a lovely time identifying what was around.

We also discovered that there was a fm radio tour which covers some of the area, which we had not read about on any of the other signboards of the printed info for the area. Next time it would be great to try this. 

We also discovered another camp site (Gnaarla Mia) which is a large new campsite near the one we stayed in, at 8.30am there was no evidence that anyone had stayed in the 25 or so lovely flat sites or used the 2 amazingly large camp kitchen shelters with bbqs.  Next time we come through here we should stay here - lots of flat sites with a good amount of room between them.

We drove up the highway towards the track and started in on it at mid morning (Jarrahdale road MC9). 

Light rain was falling and we wondered what the day would be like – and the area was amazingly green compared to the dryandra area.

These scores on the trees were the early navigation system in the area. Some of them were used for the indicators on the track we were following. (turn right at the BV 69 1)

It wasn’t long before we arrived at the old POW camp – this was really an internment camp for Italians during the 2^nd world war (who were worked like crazy milling timber and then send back to Italy after the war finished).  It sounded like cheap labour to us.

very little remains of the camp.

The track took us through Jarrahdale’s orchards and on to the Serpentine Dam, where there are hundreds of car parks near the café (not counting the overflow parking of another hundred or so) . We had lunch at the lower picnic area, where we took a photo of Bridget’s trophy looking down over the autumn leaves. (since we are bringing it home for her it is making a tour on the way).

slightly later on the dam wall lookout of a dam further down.

We did encounter some wash-away sections on the track which actually gave us some thinking about how to pick the correct line , and did a short stretch of bitumen and then back on to dirt before coming to the parking for the Marrinup falls. We took the track down to see the falls, but found a dry river bed instead – with pretty rocks and a little pool. (1.5km)

from the distance this looked like a cemetery.  Then we realised people had been placing piles of rocks. 

Soon after this we came to the old Marrinup townsite which is now a campsite, and we drove around until we found two fairly flat sites side by side and isolated from the rest of the campers.  Ideal.  So we set up.  We actually put up the foxwing awning and the 2 sides – giving lots of shelter in case of possible rain. 

just down the track from our camp 

first time up with sides on

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It is a very crispy night with bright stars (maybe there will be no rain) so we all gathered under the canvas shelter and enjoyed some great conversation until late (8.20pm)  when we all agreed it was time for bed after our long, hard day. 

We are just north of Dwellingup and can hear a sound something like the sound of the grand prix in Adelaide – a constant high buzzing, like the sound of the cars whizzing around the track.  We assume that this is some mining equipment and will probably be an annoying company for the entire night.  We are sure that it will be just a buzz in the background after a while.  

Please note:  days later we realised that the sound was frogs!!